The whole family is sick in one form or another.
And when I say sick I mean we’re passing around a bug reminiscent of the alien in John Carpenter’s, “The Thing.” When my younger son coughed the other day it sounded so other-worldly that I almost drew some of his blood and held it to an open flame.
Sadly though, life in the 21st century has a “show must go on” mentality so my wife and I have been working away and the kids are still at school with the rest of their coughing friends.
The one thing that I have given up during my last week of sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, and feverishness is wine drinking. Actually that’s not true, I did go out to dinner a few nights ago (I’ve been feeling worse in the mornings, not when dark) and failed to enjoy two really nice Italian wines. For me, my taste buds are shot right now.
But didn’t Poor Richard come up with some alcohol related remedy (the Hot Toddy?) for when we are under the weather?
I did a little research online and can save you the trouble of typing in, “drinking alcohol when sick” as it simply pulls up page after page of college kids trying to help each other out of “getting” sick when drinking alcohol. Ah, the good old days…
I did find a bit of data conducted by Carnegie Mellon University (not by the binge drinking students, mind you) that showed a resistance to colds with moderate alcohol consumption.
More amazingly, researchers in Spain found that “…drinking eight to 14 glasses of wine per week, particularly red wine, was linked to as much as a 60 percent reduction in the risk of developing a cold. The scientists suspected this had something to do with the antioxidant properties of wine.”
If that’s the case I should be more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Alas, I’ve not drank much wine this week, have done no exercise and as such still feel like Paul Bunyan’s boot is stepping on my head.
So this humble blogger will try his best to get better before continuing the “Race for 57.” For now, consider me on the DL…
I’m hoping to get sick so I can drink more wine.
Hey Eric,
For a healthy cure, try Prickly Pear, fresh is best. See this research, cold symptoms are similar to a hangover:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/od/chemicaldependency/a/cactus604.htm
I ran into this research while looking for a recipe for fermenting Prickly Pears. I am now hoping to produce a wine that solves its own problems.
Cheers!
Uzi